The Irish standard., 1887-12-03
EDISON'S PHON NOGRAPR.
The Wonderful Things He Claims
the Machine Will Do.
An Invention Which, II Found Practical,
VIII Do Away with ste biography
and ypewritins-Lang.age Trans
nlitted by Mail.


4 VIII DO Away with stenegr.aphy
and observation-disclosures Trans
n,itted by Mail.
When found by a New York Post reporter
in the laboratory Of his lamp factory in
Newark, from which four thousand lamps a
day are now sent out. Edison said that the
commercial phonograph is now the most in
telesting thing LII the world to him. al
though it is perfectly finished, and tools are
belng made for its manufacture upon a
large scale. The stories which Edison tells
OF what his perfected phonograpb will do
are so extraordinary that he scarcely ex-
poets people to believe him, and yet he says
thst the apparatus is SO simple. SO effective
and so Immediately useful that he is Ger
| tain OF its rapid introduction into business
far more certain than he was Of the uni
yersal adoption Of the telephone as bust
ness instruments. Edison said OF his newly
| finished monographs: You know that I
finished the first phonograph more than ten
| years ago. It remained more or less toy.
| The germ Of something wonderful
was perfectly distinct, but / tried
the impossible with it, and when
the electric-light business assumed conf
mercial Importance J. threw every thing
| overheard for that Nevertheless. the
monograph has been more or less con-
/ stant!y in my mind ever since. When rest
ing from prolonged work upon the light
my brain would revert almost autonaatical-
ly to the OLD idea. Since the light has been
finished have taken UP the phonngraph,
and after eight months OF steady work have
made it a commercial invention. My pho
nog1aph expect to see in every business
Office 'Tt,n tirst firA,1 ,x~ill I
be ready for distribution about the end Of
January. Their operation is simplicity it.
self and can not fail. The merchant or
clerk who wishes to send q letter has only
to sci the machine in motion and to talk il
his natural voice and at the usual rale Of
speed into the receiver. When he has fin
isheti. the sheet, or phonogra1n,' Us [ call
1t. is ready Tor putting into q little box made
Oh purpose for the lllails. We arc making
the sheets i'll three sizes ono for letters OF
from 500 to 1000 words, another size Su,
1900 words, another size for 1000 words. /
expect that arrangements may be inads.
with the post-otfice authorities enabling the
phonogram boxes to be sent at the same
ate as a letter.
The receiver OF q phonograln will put it
into his apparatus and the message will he
given out more clearly, more distinctly
than the best telephone message ever sent.
The toncs Of the voice. il, the two phono-
graphs which have finished are SO perfect
ly rendered that one Cali distinguish be-
tween twenty different pcrsons, each one
OF Whom has said Il few words. One tlr
1HnGolls advantage is that the letter may
J5 re,,na1ed Il thousand times if necessary.
Tie i,|lonogram does not wear out BY use;
moreover il may be filed away ft>l, hundred
If, man dictates lis Will to lie ,honoyss,ph.
there viii be no disputlng the t1t1enti,ity
Of the tl,p"l,1,,ent With those who ktcsy the
to.cs of i:ls voice in life The cost of max
iIl:, the pllonogIyln. will be scarcely more
1isalA tae cost OF ordinary letter paper. The
machine W-ili read on, the letter or message
at the same speed with which it was dc
tatcti.
II have experimental with q device for
enabling printers TO set type directly from
the dictation Of the 11t,onograph and think
that it will work 70 {, charm. Ii Is SO ar
ragged that the printer. by touching a lover
with his foot allows five ni ten words IF the
phtnoeram to be sounded: il he is not sat
isticd with the first hearing he call make
ii repeat the same Wortis over and over
again until he has them in type. For busy
men who dictate a great deal for the press
am sure the photograph will be Il neces-
sity after a very little experiences
''For musicians The p}1nllograph Is going |
to do wonders. owing co the extreme cheap /
ness with which l cta duplicate phono-
grains and the oelicac., with Whi,;h the aT,- |
pssI;ttus gives out all musical sounds. In |
the early phonograph Of ten years ago. |
which was q very imperfect and crude al |
fair compared to that Of to-day, it was, nj !
ways noticed that nillsical sounds came out
particularly We'll; the machine would |
whistle or sing far better than it would |
talk This seculiarity Of the phonograph |
remains. I have taken down the music Of |
an orchestra. and the result is marvellous;
each instrument Can be perfectly dis
tinguished, the strings are perfectly dis
tiuct. the violus from the cellos, the wind
instruments and the wood are per fect]y
heard, and even i'll the notes of 81 violin the
over-toncs are distinct to g. delicate ear 1t
is going to work wonders for the benefit of
a piece for any instrument;
for the piano, OF fol an orchestra, or an
act on the whole of an opera, musical III
struments and voices. can be given out by
the phOnograph with ii beauty of tone and
a distilctness past belief, and the dupl;cat-
ing apparatus for phonogrsins is SO cheap
an affair that the price Of music for the
will be scarcely worth consid-
ering. AS the phonogram will be practical
II indestruetible by ordinary use. such nu-
sic can be played over and over again.
"My first phonograph: as You remember,
simply of a roller carrying the
foil: and provided with a diapt1ra gin-point
arranged to scrape o., jndent the
foil. The roller was turned by hand In
the new instrument there is far more COM
plicstion, but altogether different results.
My propelling machinery consists of q small
electric motor: run by a very few cells.
Strange to say: have found more difficulty
in getting q motor to suit me than any other
part of the apparatus It1'ied various kinds
of cloclSWorl1 aad sprin g-1notors, but found
them untrustworthy and noisy. The motors
am now making are absolutely steady ali
noiseless. There is 20 part Of the apparatus
the tools for which / am now making on
large scale here. which is likely to get out
Of order or to work III az uncertain manner
The Two finished phonographs are practi-
cally exactly what intend to offer for sale
within few months
An Editors Peril.
On Thursday night, While we were writ
np an editorial on the financial condition